Mechanical movement.



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MECHANICAL MOVEMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

'latenten June 12, 1906.

Application led August 25,1905. Serial No. 275,747.

To-(LZZ whom, t may concern:

Be it known that I, FRED NEVELL LIVING- sTON, a' citizen of the UnitedStates, and a resident of Ballard, in the county of King and State ofWashington, have invented a new and Im roved Mechanical Movement, ofwhich the fo lowing is a full, clear, and eXact description.

The invention relates to a new mechanism for transforming reciprocatoryinto continuous rotary motion, and, conversely, for transformingcontinuous rotary into reciprocatory motion.

It is useful principally as a substitutefor the crank-shaft, although itmay be put to other uses, as will suggest themselves to skilledmechanics.

The invention resides in certain special features of construction andarrangement of parts, which will be fully set forth hereinafter andparticularly pointed out in the claims.

Reference is had to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, as anexample, the preferred embodiment of my invention, in which- Figure 1 isa side elevation of the invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional plan lookingdown from the line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a detail view showing theparts in the position which they assume when the reciprocating elementis about to reverse its movement. Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4 4 ofFig. 1.

The s eciiic embodiment of the invention, especial y the framing,bearings, and smaller parts, is in no way essential and will not belparticularly described in this s ecification. t may also be observedthat whi e theinvention is here shown as embodying toothed gears, whichare considered preferable, the invention is not, however, limited togears of this form, and other gears-such, for instance, asfriction-gears-may be employed,

if desired.

The invention involves two racks 10, which are disposed Iin parallelismopposite each other and are rigidly joined together, these racksfurnishing the essentialities of the reciprocating member. Ashere shown,said racks are joined rigidly by yokes 1 1, to which shafts 12, fortransmitting' the reciprocating movement, may be connected. Locatedbetween and coacting with the racks is a gear 14, which has half of itsperiphery formed with teeth 15, arrangedl to mesh with the teeth of theracks 10. The gear 14 is carried on a shaft 16, which is intended to berevolubly driven from the reciprocating members 10. Each rack 10 isprovided at each end with one or more retractable teeth. As here shown,the racks have one movable tooth at each end. These teeth are designated17 and 18 on each rack. The teeth 17 are arranged to move in and out ofactive position and are yieldingly pressed into active position bySprings 19. Said teeth 17 are arranged in opposite position with respectto each other, as shown in Fig. 1. The teeth 18 are also arranged inopposite positionswith respect to each other and are retractable likethe teeth 17. The teeth 18 are pressed into active position by springs20, and said teeth have connected thereto cross-pieces 21, which areengaged by tap pet-arms 22. Said tappet-arms are pivoted to the racks 10at the points 23 and project inward, so that when moving with the racksthey will respectively engage the shaft 16 at the ends of the movementof the racks. As said tappets 22 strike the shaft 16 they will bearagainst the cross-pieces 21 and with draw the teeth 18. As thedrawingsillustrate, the stationaryrackteeth directly opposite to themovable teeth are cornered off or tapered slightly at the side adjacentto the movable teeth, and the end teeth on the gear 14 are similarlyshaped.

The operation of the apparatus may be traced as follows: Assume that theparts are moving in the direction of the arrows applied to Fig. 1. Whenthe racks 10 reach the limit of their rightward movement, the righthandtappets 22 will strike the shaft 16 and said tappets will be throwndownward, withdrawing the left-hand tooth 18. Simultaneously theright-hand end tooth on the gear 14 will strike the yieldingly-sustainedtooth 17 on the upper rack 10 and cause said tooth to move backwardsufficiently to allow said tooth of the gear to ride under said tooth17, the tooth 17 of the upper rack 10 coming back under the action ofthis spring between the two end teeth at the right-hand side of the gear14, referring to Fig. 1. It will thus be seen that when the parts reachthe limit of their rightward movement the top rack will be engaged withthe gear and the bottom rack will be disengaged therefrom. Thisoperation is illustrated in Fig. 3, where the right-hand tappets 22 areshown thrown downward and the tooth 18 of the gear 10 retracted, thusdisengaging the bottom rack IOO IIO

from the gear 14. Fig. 3 also shows that the tooth 17 of the upper rackis sprungin between the two end teeth at the bottom of the gear 14. Theracks 10 thus reverse their movement, and the shaft 16 is given a secondhalfrevolution, whereupon the above-described operation is repeated withrespect, however, to the teeth 17 and 18 at the right-handends of theracks as contradistinguished from the teeth 17 and 18 at'the leftehandends of the racks. It will be seen, therefore, that the essential partof my invention resides in imparting continuous rotary movement to amutilated gear by means of opposite reciprocating racks between whichthe gear is located and by the employment of one or more movable teethwhich enable the racks to engage or disengage the gear, according to theposition of the parts. This provides an effective means for transformingthe motion, and it has the prominent advantage of offering a cranksubstitution in which there is no dead-center, the force of thereciprocating element being exerted on the gear at all times at rightangles to the line of movement of the driving element or, in otherwords, at the point where the greatest effort may be eX- erted.

By slightly cornering off or tapering of the teeth of thefgear and theracks, as before eX- plained, I am enabled to employ but one movabletooth at each end of each rack. It is pointed out, however, that two ormore movable teeth may be employed at each end of the racks with goodresults. It will also be observed that the invention may be employed fortransmitting rotary 'and reciproeating motion by a mere reversal of theoperation above described.

Having thus described the preferred form of my invention, what I claimas new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination of a mutilated toothed gear, two toothed racksconnected to reciprocate in unison and lying at opposite sides of thegear, said racks having movable teeth, and means for automaticallymoving said teeth.

2. The combination of a mutilated toothed gear, two toothed racksconnected to reciprocate in unison and lying at opposite sides of thegear, each rack having a movable tooth at each end, means for yieldinglypressing said teeth into active position, and. means in connection withone movable tooth of each rack for automatically retracting said teethupon a change in the direction of movement of the racks, said meansbeing located at opposite sides of the center of the gear.

3. The combination of a mutilated toothed gear, two toothed racksconnected to reciprocate in unison and lying at opposite sides of `thegear, each rack having a movable tooth at each end, means for yieldinglypressing said teeth into active position, and means in connection withone movable tooth of each rack for automatically retracting said teethupon a change in the direction of movement of the racks, said meansbeing located at opposite sides of the center of the gear, and saidmeans consisting in tappets pivoted to the racks and adapted to engage arelatively stationary part.

4. The combination of a mutilated toothed gear, the end teeth of whichare cornered off or inclined, two toothed racks connected to reciprocatein unison engaging opposite sides of the gear, each rack having amovable tooth at each end, means for yieldingly pressing said teeth intoposition, and means in connection with one tooth of each rack forautomatically retracting said teeth, said means lying at opposite sidesof the center of the gear and adapted to engage a relatively stationarypart.

5. The combination of a toothed gear adapted to rotate, two toothedracks connected to reciprocate in unison, said racks having movableportions, and means for au tomatieally disengaging the movable portionsof one rack from the gear and engaging the movable portion of the rackwith the gear upon a change of the direction of movement of said racks.

6. The combination of a mutilated toothed gear, two racks connected toreciprocate in unison and lying at opposite sides of the gear, each rackhaving a movable tooth for the purpose specified, devices moving withthe racks and connected with the movable teeth, and relativelystationary means adapted to be periodically engaged by said devices,whereby automatically to retract the teeth.

7. The combination of a mutilated toothed gear, two racks connected toreciprocate in unison, each rack having at each end a movable tooth,springs pressing one tooth of each rack yieldingly into position, saidteeth being oppositely situate, devices moving with the racks andconnected with the other movable teeth, and relatively stationary meansadapted periodically to be engaged by said devices, wherebyautomatically to retract the teeth connected thereto.

8. The combination of a mutilated gear, a shaft on which the gear ismounted, racks connected to reciprocate in unison and engaging oppositesides of the gear, each rack having a movable tooth, and elbow-leversfulcrumed on the racks and connected with the movable teeth, saidelbow-levers being adapted to periodically strike said shaft, for thepurpose specified.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

FRED NEVELL LIVINGSTON.

Witnesses:

ANNA M. LIVINGSTON, EMMA J. WILSON.

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